Top Ten Insights From Watching the Coen Brothers’ Cult Classic “The Big Lebowski” While Vagabonding In Varanasi, India

1. Get the “I” out of your eye. Rousseau-style vagabonding in Varanasi confirms what the film shows: as ego diminishes, clarity increases.

2. The familiar is strange. Watch funeral pyres on the Ganges, then watch the film’s farcical funeral scene — how strange becomes our culture’s gag-reflex towards death.

3. Aristotle beats Kant. Varanasi embodies Aristotelian ethics. Our culture, Kantian ethics. The Dude prioritizes character; his sidekick, Walter, obsesses over rules-as-prohibitions. Guess who is more ethical.

4. Relax, life’s a costume party. When vagabonding, you’re “everyone” by being “no one.” To the Dude, identity is a costume. So: take yourself less seriously.

5. Shrinking news headlines expands your world. The Dude squints and shrugs at the looming Gulf War, as I did, while vagabonding, at coverage of Trump’s impeachment.

6. Get lost to wake up. You pay attention when lost in Varanasi, like the Dude during his magic-carpet ride.

7. Serendipity produces magic. Over-plan in Varanasi and you’ll miss the magic. Be the Dude: attend to the needs of the moment.

8. Beware of addictions to “pleasure.” Watch the Ganges flow, peel your ambrosial orange, and feel the freedom from consumerist desire. Be the Dude: reject the hedonic treadmill.

9. The “sacred” makes the world go ’round. The sacred reigns in Varanasi. The Dude fights the “Nihilists.” Subdue our market mentality.

10. We’re all vagabonds. Behold a cremation to appreciate what the Dude knows: we’re performers strutting and fretting our hour upon the stage.